President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Namadi Sambo(in the background).

President Jonathan appears determined, and most commendably so, to have the defence and security forces retooled in a manner which has not been experienced for over thirty years

VANGUARD
16 July, 2014
ABUJA

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan wrote the National Assembly Wednesday, seeking the approval of a $1 billion loan to enable government tackle the increased security challenges posed by the Boko Haram.

Jonathan’s request was contained in a letter dated July 15, and addressed to House of Representatives Speaker, Aminu Tambuwal, entitled Tackling Ongoing Security Challenges for Urgent Action.

The letter read in part: “You are no doubt cognizant of the ongoing serious security challenges, which the nation is facing as typified by the Boko Haram terrorists threat. This is an issue that we have discussed at various times.

“I would like to bring to your attention the urgent need to upgrade the equipment, training and logistics of our Armed Forces and security services to enable them be more forceful to confront this serious threat.“For this reason, I seek the concurrence of the National Assembly for external borrowing of not more than $1 billion, including government to government arrangements for this upgrade.”

It will be recalled that Defence got the lion share of N968.127 billion of the N4.964 trillion 2014 budget.

What Military already got

While giving a breakdown of the budget recently, Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, disclosed that the military had already accessed N130.7 billion between January and April, while another N3.8 billion already approved by President Goodluck Jonathan was being processed and would soon be released to the military. She explained that of the disbursed N130.7 billion, N85.9 billion was for personnel cost.

The Minister had said: “Defence spending is top in everything. You know that military establishments need new things to assist them in their work and ours will not be different. “No budget will be enough to meet their demands, but for now I think the sector takes almost a trillion of the budget.”

Vanguard, however, learnt that the request may be considered and approved today, since both chambers of the National Assembly will be proceeding on their annual recess to resume mid-September.

POST-SCRIPT: It will recalled that President Jonathan in May 2014 gave approval for the release of an extra-budgetary grant of US$1 billion to the Armed Forces for the purpose of hardware acquisition.

If this loan facility is approved, the military and security forces would have in one year alone, received a decent sum of US$2 billion for the purpose of rearmament. That is easily the heaviest outlay dedicated to the purpose of hardware procurement since the ouster of the Shagari regime in 1983.

Remember when I was harping on govt-govt transactions and preferential buyers’ credit from China EXIM Bank? That is what is about to unfold now, if you ask me.

We are going to get more BigFoot MRAPs and possibly Type 07 IFV from Poly Technologies of China who are partners to our DICON. That is army gear. NORINCO and Poly Technologies would almost certainly also supply the whole gamut of COIN kit – flak jackets, webbing, 60mm marsh mortars, AGLs, 14.5mm AAMGs, SF and sniper rifles etc.

The Navy, going by the heavy searches directing traffic to this for law enforcement ships, will almost certainly be getting Fassmer 80 OPVs and Type 056 light frigates. I would not be surprised if we get a formidable Type 054 area defence frigate too. Submarines won’t be part of this naval loop but those are surely going to come by or before Q4 2016.

The NAF are going to get ALX Super Tucano COIN aircraft, JF17 Thunder, armed scout helicopters (possibly Eurocopter types which can be acquired for as little as US$2.5m apiece, tear rubber) and appropriate numbers of factory refurbished Mi-24/Mi-17 helicopters.

While we are at it, the transformational and respectable face of the NAF shall not be seen until someone has the good sense to snap up a decent haul of ex-Russian Su-30s. If we can get eight units for US$150m, we can then reach for a complementary start-up haul of eighteen JF17 Thunder Block II for $450m. The appropriate numbers required can be attained by 2018 if subsequently and from the NAF’s regular budget if we acquire four added on units of JF17s annually between 2016 and 2018. The desirable endpoint should be eight Su-30s (including two trainer variants) by 2014, eighteen JF17s by 2016….rising to a total of thirty units by 2018. That is US$600m.

Add to that six more ALX Super Tucano for US$70m, US$ US$80m on equal mix of sixteen factory refurbished units of Mi-24V Hind and Mi-17. Round it up by acquiring eighteen brand new units of the US$2.5m Eurocopter armed scout helicopter for a total of US$45m. US$795m of the US$2bn outlay is enough for the NAF. Nor be only dem dey wear uniform abeg.

The NA should get about US$400m, the NN US$ 600m, US$75m for the Police CTU and MOPOL to grab a minimum of 300 Streit,DCD/Mekahog and Proforce APCs/LAVs and the DSS/NIA should get US$55m for kit and their SOF weapons.

In all instances, there must be sweeteners (freebies) negotiated into these deals for new equipment as follows.

– on the US$450m Sino-Pakistani deal for JF17s, we should get a minumum of six airworthy ex-PAF F-7PGs off the Pakistanis.

– on a US$ 425m deal for a Type 054 frigate and two Type 056 frigates, we should seek to gain three Harbin Z-9EC ASW helos. China are involved in this and the JF17 deal, so why not?

– on a US$45m deal for a Daewoo Makassar class LPD, we should seek to gain a used PKM 36m patrol craft for free. That goes towards counterpiracy operations.

– the NN should either get three Fassmer 80 OPVs for US$125m OR more intelligently, build three new 1,500+ ton Damen 8313 OPVs in South Africa for US$70m (including 57mm gun and 20mm cannons) AND get the following used 39m-41m patrol craft from the China Coast Guard and the PLAN.

The FG should also negotiate the sale of the following ex-PLAN/CCG assets as follows, including refurbishment and upgradation costs, for a total of US$45m – three ex-CCG 41 metre Type 218 Midshore Patrol Vessels armed with 25mm cannons and 14.5mm HMGs for midrange EEZ patrols at a cost of US$20 million.

These mid-sized assets shall give a great boost to our multi-pronged anti-piracy patrol efforts and provide us with ancillary missile defence capability at sea.

Each fleet command shall be availed with the service of a midshore patrol vessel and a missile craft acquired in this way.

Emphasis on the procurement of these used assets should be the ability to sustain continuing service at sea for 12 years, by which time the puny outlay expended on their acquisition and the multi-tasking leverage availed the NN over the corresponding period, would have more than justified itself. It
translates to less than US$4 million annually for the service of six 39-41m patrol and fighting platforms…money VERY WELL SPENT

Apart from quick detection of BH convoys, the Eurocopter scout also does quick MEDEVACs under any conditions. This is key when you have to clear an ambush party or are recovering from local community attacks and have move the wounded for treatment. You don’t want your $20million MI 35s doing that. Two Eurocpter scouts take out the BH vehicles/personnel with rockets and machine guns while another two do the medical evacuations.

Oga Beeg, lets pipe down a bit on using the Z-9 in the ASW role. I will suggest, if we are going for them, we should request improvements from the Chinese manufacturers. I came across this piece in a popular Chinese newspaper:
…….Currently, the Type 056 incorporates a helipad at the stern for a light helicopter. The Sina Military Network stated that the Russian-built Kamov Ka-28 anti-submarine helicopter will be chosen to serve with the corvette in the near future. The Ka-28 helicopter is able to detect submarines at a depth of 500 meters and at running at speeds up to 75 kilometers per hour. However, only the Harbin Z-9E helicopter can be operated from the helipad of the Type 056 before the organic helicopter support facility is mounted aboard the vessel.
The Z-9E helicopter is unable to carry as much anti-submarine weaponry and equipment as the Ka-28, according to the website. The Ka-28 can be armed with one 533 millimeter homing torpedo, one torpedo rocket, ten PLAB 250-120 bombs and two OMAB-25-12D bombs. Unlike the Ka-28, which can detect enemy submarine with its own VGS-3 dipping sonar, the Z-9E cannot carry sonar and weapons simultaneously. For this reason, two helicopters, one for detecting and the other for striking must be dispatched for anti-submarine missions………

Oga Deway, I know you have good intentions with your suggestion, but I have noticed that same point about the Harbin Z-9 Anti-Submarine Warfare helicopter sometime ago, but personally, I would say having it as a cheap helicopter compatible with our Chinese warships and OPV is also important. China may also give us a few of the Z-9 ASW helicopters for free or at a very reduced price as deal sweeteners as we buy their warships.

Two P18N can carry one Z-9 ASW helicopter each and one for dipping sonar, one for torpedo. Two NNS Thunder and NNS Okpabana can do same methodology. NNS Aradu and Type 054 frigate can also use same method. Note also that NNS Aradu may be able to carry two small helicopters at the same time, her sister frigates with Argentina’s navy have such capability. We may also ask China to expand helipad for our Type 054 to carry two Z-9 ASW helicopters.

The big advantage I see in Z-9 helicopter is the reports we hear that it can carry one C-803 anti-ship missile and fire it long range over the horizon to nearly 300km.

Such helicopter and missile on board NNS Thunder, NNS Okpabana, NNS Centenary and her sister ship P18N will transform any of our ordinary OPVs into a deadly surface to surface combat warship overnight at short notice of emergency.

Also brother, I would vote for anti-torpedo counter measures to be installed on ALL Nigerian navy major warships and OPVs since we do not have submarines yet, and even if we do.

I vote for CONTRALTO-V protection, there are too many powerful Submarines used by other African countries’ navies today, one South African navy submarine is deadly enough to sink the whole Nigerian navy in one day. We don’t know as at today, our enemy tomorrow at sea. Nigeria be prepared.

Weapons and equipment purchase as listed by you above is seconded Oga Beegeagle. With those hardware, Nigeria will be a safe country for our people and foreign business investors, safe on land, sea, and air. Those weapons/equipment hold the master key to victory for Nigeria in an insurgency or conventional war. We cannot grow our economy and infrastructure if we cannot guarantee peace in our land.

If we continue to have too much trouble and bloodshed beyond our control, and it is only a matter of time before foreign investors begin to run away from Nigeria.

The biggest economy in Africa, needs to be the most powerful military, even Egypt should envy our military might, Nigerian population is double that of Egypt, Nigerian GDP is almost double that of Egypt, Nigerian dollar foreign reserve is more than double that of Egypt.

Nigeria’s crude oil, natural gas, and ALL solid mineral/natural resource wealth reserves is more than that of Egypt, Algeria, or South Africa.

Nigeria is the richest country in Africa in terms of natural resource wealth reserves.

Spend your money to save yourself Nigeria ! Build a powerful ultra-modern military, and you will have safety at home to eat your Gari and Egusi soup in peace and not in pieces !

One was an authority to spend via what is akin to an Executive Order EO. This one is a request to borrow money and go into foreign ECG / loan deals with China’s Eximbank and maybe other ones. How could they be the same?.
As @Beegeagle was also suggesting, the Europeans also want in into everything. We almost need an inter ministerial office in the Presidency to coordinate things and remove bureaucratic bottlenecks.

OGA asorock
The one on the earlier ANNOUNCEMENT is already BEING SPENT .This is being USED ALREADY in the NE . Pictures from Nairaland DO CONFIRM that on going purchases are being used as we SPEAK.
On a side derail or exit , i have been noticing in some of the PICTURES some of the Soldiers have been carrying FRAGMENTATION GRENADES. are these from China ? Russia? or are these Home made? Questions, questions, questions.

My hope is that every single penny of that 1 billion goes to hardware acquisition and not some recurrent administrative crap. I guess it better than nothing we certainly need more money to spend on more attack Helos and Gunships. We need a ‘Fire force’ respond strategy to counter BH ambushes and while 1 billion is a welcome development, its nowhere close enough.

Interesting.
Why are we actually funding this through a loan, when we have sufficient foreign reserves, sovereign accounts etc to fund this in cash. In the funding plan we dont hear of recurrent funding for maintenance or training.
Anyway I don’t know much about money lets see what its used for first

😦 It was hit by the rebels, who thought it was an Ukrainian military transport and quickly took responsibilities. But when they checked the scene and found out it was a foreign passenger plane, they kept quiet. The plane was hit by the Buk Missile system which was brought in and manned by specialists from a “neighbouring country” which is supporting the rebels……..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buk_missile_system

This is proof appeasement never works. Putin lives in the past, i personally suspect he has mental issues. If Obama hadn’t compromised on Syria Putin will think twice about blatantly flaunting international law. Save for verbal condemnation and pin prick sanctions the status quo will not change.

come on accidents happen, it was a mistake. And it is certainly not Putins fault. I prefer Putin to obama because Putin is ready to sell us the needed equipment while Obama thinks US-Nigeria relationship should be handled by amnesty international or the kkk and he will not sell us.

The lesson for our lame duck political leaders who are so self absorbed and only think of money and continuing in offices they don’t merit is if they dare permit a situation whereby BokoHaram or other weakly led militias continue to seize territory and acquire dangerous weapons then they are going to pay a collective high personal price. These are separatists already bringing down a plane at 30000ft. Let our own stealing, corruption, weak mindedness, parochialism and pussy footing continue. Let the armed forces continue to be made weak. Shekau himself will acquire capabilities to shoot himself into the National Assembly or Aso Rock and kidnap the occupants. It is not just weak female teenage school children that can be kidnapped. A word is enough for the wise.

Another concern Ogas, if a separatist insurgence in Ukraine has the BUK surface-to-air missile, we need to start fasting and praying that such dangerous weapon doesn’t fall into the hands of BH. Before someone here goes for my jugular, I’m not trying to spread fear, just stating an obvious possibility.

Sir Ugo,
Take a deep breath and calm down. The BUK air defence system is an advanced piece of equipment. It is not something that a band of deluded gun weilding boys scout can handle. You need trained and I mean well trained transporter erector launcher and radar crew to bring the effectiveness of such a system to bear. Besides the possibility of such an advanced system in Boko’s hands is nil. So no fasting and praying is needed.

What you should be scared of is these virtual virgin seeking bastards copying their brothers tactics…I mean Boko copying some brute shock tactics from ISIS and Al Shabab doing the same, now that’s a real possibility and a potent threat. In a way it’s already happening. Al Shabab have recently adopted Boko style raids and kidnappings in Kenya. Now I encourage you to pray and fast.

Oga Are james, sanctions don’t work like that (the way you described). If there were a sanction on Russia defence exports, the come into effect on the due date. All deals signed before the sanctions come into effect, remain valid and would be unaffected by the sanction.

That been said, the events in ukraine cannot lead to sanctions on russian arms. Who would fill up the huge space left by the world second largest military exporter?

Infact, despite the annexation of Crimea, the Russians still received the 1st of 3 mistral amphibious assault ships from France.

If indeed it is confirmed that rebels brought down the Plane, we should note that the separatist did overrun a ukrainian base, and they captured ukrainian missile defence systems and T-64v MBTs. I’ve seen a un-confirmed photo of an SA-11 (BUK) system purportedly moving somewhere in donesk @Oga Obix
.

At the end of the day, wetin concern me, na the ukrainians and russians sabi, it’s there problem, not ours in nigeria. We got terrible terrorist threat to contend with here in nigeria. It’s certainly not our problem.

http://odili.net/news/source/2014/jul/17/828.html
Something new
The missile was stolen from a Ukrainian base so both the Ukrainian army for failure to immobilize such a system and the separatists for using it blindly are at fault.
Meanwhile ISRAEL is at WAR.

Still on Ukraine:
@Rusellinfinity, you are very right, the Buk system is not a MANPAD that you can get from the shelf and use it yourself the next minute. @Oga Jimmy, the one that was purportedly stolen from a Ukrainian base was immobilizes quickly and the rebels got a another from Russia. @Oga Henry, E concern all of us because innocent lives were lost there. It could have been a plane with Nigerian passengers as well. The Ukrainian airforce SU25 jets have been hitting the rebels hardly ,which made them receive the Buk system.Yes there are videos and pictures showing the Buk system coming in from the neigbouring country and definitely with specialists. This and other proofs point to the fact that the Buk system and other major weapons are coming in from the neighbours. I will not openly give much information available to me except the ones already made public. Please check out this intercepted phone calls….. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnuHxAR01Jo

If Nigerian military has been transparent and their accountants explain how every kobo of defence budget is spent yearly, and stop all these secret weapons purchases, paying for full options Cobra APC and getting ‘dry’ base versions, buying jet fighters in a non-transparent manner, spending 90% of defence budget on salaries and not explaining, allowing civilians in finance ministry to denominate dollar priced weapons in the ‘inflated’ naira conversion to give wrong spending impressions, failling to approach national assembly through senate committee on defense, playing the cards right, letting Nigerians contribute their opinion about heavy weapons purchases like it’s done in advanced countries…..if they had done well, this man will not be saying this…

The level of ignorance being displayed by most of the commentators is shocking.Most countries re-equip their armed forces nearly every decade,for e.g the Turkish nat. airdefence project alone will be costing them about $ 5bill. the little $ 1 bill is not even enough to procure the total no. of fighter aircraft,aew’c,patrol planes,new jet trainers,helos e.t.c and that is just for the airforce.

Wrong sir. The product life cycle of aerospace systems is traditionally 7 to 10 years based on technology development cycles of the past. This was not established fiat but by traditional R&D cycles and factory retooling time. Unfortunately this technologies are now being driven by electronics, digital and data science stuff which are nomore following that tine frame. I think current technology cycles are 2 years and for aerospace maybe 4years.
In Nigeria we have missed 4 cycles of re equipment ..and that is using the old figure of 7 to 10 years. So what are you justifying?.
You see the JF17 newly developed already being upgraded to Block 2 and 3. Mixed block versions are going to co exist in a service space that offers a spectrum of capabilities by single platforms.
Please dont give the wrong idea to our leadership who would seize the excuse and do nothing for another decade.

This is insightful, thank you.
Is Nigeria such an ugly, dirty, slimy old man that nobody loves it?. It is very sad that it has become the land every body takes from, dumps on and exports the money elsewhere to spend. Now nobody even wants to defend it. Na wa. Make Nigeria no vex o. Spiritual things.

Someone should tell Mr. Falana that if that request for $1bn is rejected, very soon Boko haram will be in Lagos. i hope he will still be high-minded enough at that time to reject it. Sadly, people like him will probably board the next flight one the Boko haram wave nears the middle belt.

Not sure what he is trying to achieve. When will our people realise this thing is beyond politics now?

Sir that is what I am wondering as well. What the hell is wrong with that man, the budget is an open source material by the way. i just don’t understand why these guys are trying to stop the army from rearming ! Sometimes I just wish GEJ would lend the powers to the generals so that they can finish this war without being disturbed by politicians.

No mind them,but they are quiet when people buy private jets.we have more private jets than fighter jets abi?(all modern and sophisticated)when chad come with their mig29s and su25s to settle old scores we will send our private jets to counter them. 🙂

Dear Nigerian I suggest we ban PDP and APC for the upcoming elections, because it seems that if we don’t then they will not let us breath, they will not perform their duties, all they will do is political manoeuvrings. The goons of PDP want the loan refused because of their political agenda ! The interest of the nation is nowhere to be found. Politician imbeciles get this: we Nigerians don’t care about your parties and your political rivalry, you are in office to serve the nation so serve or get ready to face a firing squad, believe me Nigerian will have no pity for you if you continue this way. If we hear of any other case of corruption or of you going against the troops, then you will dearly regret it ! I hope you are listening cause we Nigerian s are watching you ! Remember what happened to Qaddafi !

Thanks Oga Jimmy. @Oga Henry, i trowey salute to you too. In the midst this conflict, recently four African students were abducted by the rebels out of which 2 are Nigerians. So the crisis concern us small.

So much as been said about possible refusal of approval for the loan, its very gladdening to our hearts that there are several loopholes in our financial system that allows Mr. president and his cabinet to spend as much as they want on defense-seeking parliamentary approval is an attempt to score political point kinda not getting off well. Nonetheless, So much as already been spent and so much more will be spent whether they give approval or not!,it will take a while to see them.If we follow keenly- the way we procure for the past decade,it is clear that even military officers ( except middle cadres) are not sure of what and when we buy-the army been the largest culprit followed by the Navy. I suggest people should follow Madam Ministers testimony about the military. the military have alot of stuffs coming!

I had expected keenly that the last constitutional conference should address the issue of military budgeting,military personnel emoluments and secrecy concerning security funds-They were not even raised as strong contentious points!

The usual reason given is that-If procurement are made public, there might be ethnic or religious coloured interpretation(nobody knew about over a hundred mini landing crafts procured by OBJ during the height of Niger delta crisis) e.t.c……all lame excuses to do something financially sinister!.

I hear some folks have gone to town screaming that the Federal Government wants to take a loan of $1 Billion to fight the insurgency. I don’t know if they think that the Federal Government can get weapons on credit. These are the same people insulting the army and calling them outdated and claiming that BH has finished our army. Well, let me give them some little education on what it takes to power a serious military.

Below is a comparison of military budgets from around the world for 2013.

Notice where Nigeria is on the list with a meager $2.3 billion as our military budget. Meanwhile, UAE, a small country of less than 10 million people with no terrorism issue, have a military budget of about $14.4 billion. About 6 times our military budget. Lets not even talk about the USA with a budget of about $612 billion. That is about 300 times our military budget. Infact, USA military budget is about 30 times our total national budget. Please help me educate some ignorant people around you.

see details below..

The Defense Spending Budget value indicates funds allotted to the maintenance and strengthening of a standing military. Not all included nations have the luxury of a large spending budget and therefore must rely on affiliations and regional alliances to maintain a capable fighting force.

We need restructuring as a nation security wise. If you recall;https://beegeagle.wordpress.com/2014/06/26/nigeria-defence-and-security-budget-analysis-courtesy-rugged7-a-beegeagles-blogger/
The police budget is almost the same for the three arms of the Military. $1.88B vs $2.13B.
Yet,the current problem started from a poverty of ability/professionalism of police force to detect and deal with the uprising early. This is because the force is centrally controlled and spread thin resource wise across the country. Fact is, policing can’t be centrally controlled but community based.The states should control their police force but their should be a Federal Police in each state which deals with federal crimes and can takeover the resources of the state police to solve same said crimes.
My humble 2kobo.

we are still far from dat .once state police is created,extra judicial kill will b d order of d day.say boy don dey climb gal no mean say him don reach to become father o,cos wen wet in pass him power com him go run

That is why there will be a small well funded Federal Police that can take over the state police and it’s assets at any-time also, a federal controlled Internal police that monitors the activities of state police can be put in place.. As is, there is already extra-judicial killings in the N.E. by B.H.and the police that we spend as much as the military on can do nadda.
If we want to continue this way we will need more than 5x our current funding for the federal force,that can occur if the states chip in.

These towns need a week each to clear of BH. Special Forces tactics all the way backed by sustained air power. Landing of assault troops followed by uick egress of choppers and sustained air cover denying the insurgents mobility.Driving into Damboa to recapture is the stupidest thing ever. Enough of these Skakabula tactics.

This paid undercover civilian informants will play the role of Amebo drones that we do not have. Need to avoid NA driving head on into Boko ambushes that are not hidden. Also needful for NA to change tactics, MRAPS have to lead our soldiers’ convoys and soft skin Toyotas say 3km behind in case of ambush. These ambushes are killing NA morale, and leading to deserters multiplying, how does it feel like being sent into a killing field prepared for you by your own fellow Nigerian army soldier-traitor-betrayer-fifth columnist ? It hurts, kills morale.

Paid informants who can blend well with the environment is a good idea. Interestingly during the Nigerian civil war, these assets on both sides played an important part during the mid west campaigns. DMI over to you, civilian informants with good man
management are more effective than drones,

At least it appears to be limited to one lily livered Battalion at the moment and 101 were supposed to be the President’s all action Reserve Battalion. I suppose they just thought they would relax in Abuja and cream it in.

It really makes you wonder what psychological assessment the Army does when recruiting people. At least they have recognised this and will be more thorough in future.